Amanda Mercer Néder and Jim Corwin oral history interview

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Amanda Mercer Néder and Jim Corwin oral history interview, transcript

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This interview, which took place on October 5, 1996, begins with a discussion of the names and relationships of various members of the Mercer and Meltzer family. Néder talks at some length about her childhood, including the trips to Savannah, the houses the family lived in, and the things that she and her father did for recreation. She speaks of the celebrities that visited their home, particularly Nat King Cole, Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and others. She also mentions being taken to work with her father when she was quite young, and she talks briefly about the radio and television shows that Mercer was involved in. Corwin joins the dialogue at several points to reminisce about the times he spent with his grandfather, recalling especially a song that Mercer wrote for Corwin's cub scout troop and several other humorous incidents that took place when he was growing up. Néder and Corwin both discuss the period during which the show Good Companions was produced in England, and Mercer's final illness, which followed. At the end of the conversation, they talk about the current revival of interest in Mercer's songs.

Biographical note

Georgia Amanda "Mandy" Mercer (born 5/12/39) is the daughter of Johnny Mercer and his wife Ginger M. Mercer. In 1941, she became the subject of a song that her father wrote titled "Mandy Is Two." She spent most of her childhood in California, although she and her family made frequent visits to Savannah, her father's birthplace. She went to New York as a young woman, and in 1960 she married Bob Corwin (1933-). Corwin was a composer and pianist who worked with Johnny Mercer for a time as his musical stenographer and accompanist. She resettled in California after her first marriage and raised her children there. Her son Jim Corwin (b. 1961) was also present at this interview.

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Citation

M140_NederA-CorwinJ, Johnny Mercer Oral History Project, Popular Music and Culture Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Library, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.

Copyright to items in this collection is owned by Georgia State University Library. Georgia State University Library has made this digital collection available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License. Please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ for more information.